If you’ve ever wondered how I paint with watercolor, you can see my art painting videos on YouTube. In these soothing ASMR painting videos, I share my timelapses of a painting being created, how to use watercolor in actual speed, and various watercolor techniques as part of my paintings on this website.
This playlist will be updated every Tuesday morning with a new video. Subscribe here so you don’t miss them.
I also share the art materials I use in the description of every video so you can pick up the brush and paint with me. Or if you’ve just always wondered how I create my paintings, you can sit back and watch and enjoy. If you enjoy the videos, please click the thumbs up button to let me know that you enjoy them.
I can’t believe I’ve been showing my art since 2007 and I’ve never shared an art studio tour before. No, actually, I can believe it because all my past art studios have been very uncomfortable and not photogenic. Yeah, I know, we live in an “Instagram highlight reel vs. Reality” world. But before this, I never had an apartment that could even be considered in an Instagram highlight reel. Despite being uncomfortable, I’ve created artwork and shared artwork, not making the ‘uncomfortability’ aspect of my life a feature or defect or even a mere existence in my art… for some “it’s not you, it’s me” reasons:
I didn’t want anyone to feel sorry for me or let pity have any impact on why someone would buy my art or hire me.
I didn’t want to parade around “expressing a message” as if my situation was okay, because it’s not okay.
I didn’t know what “comfortable” was. I had a general idea of how I wanted to improve my situation and worked towards those goals but I had no idea what I was missing. What am I missing now?
Whatever. Today, I’m grateful.
The easel where I paint bigger pieces, 11×14 or larger. Watercolor and ink are very prone to gravity, so sometimes I lay out a towel on the floor and paint there, too. My bookcase and coffee table are for my display planning & sketching, a place for my brushes + paint palettes + brush rinsing water containers, and a place for coffee + books, imagine that.
I love paint swatches so much, that I walk on them. I found this rug on Amazon after searching for one for several days. After I had the rug I adored, I started spending a lot of time on it. And the clear acrylic coffee table was something I imagined I’d like to have someday so that I could keep working from my thinking couch and thinking floor but the view of the rug wouldn’t be blocked. But tables like that are $150 – $250+, and sketchbooks and coffee don’t float for free. Then one day, one of my neighbors made my dream come true when they set out a clear acrylic coffee table outside for anyone to take. I admire my lucky anti-gravity find every day from my thinking couch, which also faces the best and the only window in my apartment.
My desk, where I create sketches and paintings 8×10 and smaller. This desk style is a bit in the style of a of a vintage/antique writing desk. This is where I’ve recorded all my painting time-lapse videos and done a lot of writing. I think my hidden talent is selecting random colors that unintentionally mix and match well together, per my taste. This is what happened when I got everything for my studio slowly, one piece of furniture at a time, and I never once thought “oh, this will go great with the other furniture.” Except for that clear coffee table, because gravity.
I found this mirror at a yard sale for $8 in central Illinois in 2007, when I was first starting to show my artwork. I’ve changed the logo and writing on it over the years, but the mirror has been my business sign since I started doing art fairs. My second hidden talent is selecting furniture that doubles as show equipment.
I have hearts in my logo, and Valentine’s Day is coming up, so how could I possibly not acknowledge this chair holiday. In this sentence, “chair” is an adjective. I’m using the word “chair” to describe the holiday because it’s a metaphor for how I looked around the room and saw something that I love.
Piece #25 is one of the new originals that are in the shop. I ended up painting some of the Pieces in more detail because I wanted to see how certain details would look with a new painting technique I’ve developed. These paintings would look pretty classy in a black frame, or both matted & framed in black. I’ve created several new original paintings available in the shop, all of which I painted at night while sitting in the chair that I love.
“A Calm Within A Qualm” 3×3 limited edition vinyl sticker – $3.49 Buy sticker
And a new limited-edition sticker from my 2010 painting “A Calm Within A Qualm”. Stick it on your phone case, your laptop, your chair, use it as a bookmark, or anywhere you’d like to have a little sanctuary. These stickers are beautifully printed by Sticker Mule.
Prints of “A Calm Within A Qualm” are also available for your sanctuary.
Right now my apartment smells like cinnamon, eggnog, and coffee. No, this is not a blog with too much information about my personal life before I share my recipe for how to make cinnamon eggnog coffee. Just mix the 3 and let me know if you like it because I haven’t tried it but it sounds good.
This blog is only about too much information about my personal life, which also happens to be my professional life. Being an artist, the line between personal and professional is often blurred.
Although like many others, my goals and plans were thwarted by a pandemic, there are still things I’d like to celebrate that are professional but personally important to me. “Celebration” is just another word for “gratitude”. Look it up.
I’ve had the privilege to focus on my art this year, allowing me to further evolve and develop my style.
I set up my website to be my main place of selling my artwork, like an independent online gallery space. Basically, I’m a business owner.
I created a show in the style of a mockumentary called Artist, which so far I’ve been able to put together 2 videos episodes but will make more as I get into a better flow of, like, actually documenting my work and talking about it. I’ve always said in job interviews that my weakness is letting people get to know me. So I’ve been working on that, including making those videos episodes and writing this blog.
During the entire year of 2020, I’ve lived and worked in Los Angeles, without which I would not have been able to make such progress during such a rough year.
This #ArtVsArtist2020 image is the first year I’m participating in the #ArtVsArtist hashtag, even though it’s been a thing for a while. Because of how much I use social media on a regular basis, I’m so ashamed that I’ve missed it before.
From what I understand is: an artist chooses 8 of their favorite artworks that they made during the year, and includes 1 photo from the year of themselves, and posts the complication image on Instagram and Twitter. My painting style evolved further around late Summer, and I’ve been very happy with that so far, so the work I’ve chosen I created all after that. And the photo of me I chose posing with my favorite tequila, Espolon Blanco, while I was making a margarita in November.
Not everyone loves social media, but as an artist I do because I use it to show my work to lots of people (who also may or may not love social media but are still on it). And my social media is a form of documenting my work and its progression. It’s like a public diary that everyone gets to comment on.
Can you imagine living your everyday private life while anyone and everyone watches you and comments on your every move?
These are not vacation photos. This is my new home.
I moved across the country to Los Angeles 8 months ago, on April 1st. Of course, I only remembered to share this here now (4 years and 7 months since my last blog post) because it’s winter in Chicago now and I really appreciate the warm LA weather. I ran away from snow. Now I’m trying to figure out what kind of umbrella will protect me from wildfires and what kind of shoes will protect me from earthquakes.
This blog here is more of a behind-the-scenes thing, in case it helps anyone. But my main focus is IllustrArticles. I’m pushing myself to take more in-progress photos.
In the past few years, I’ve been pushed by several people to try teaching art that I actually started to consider it, but then my thoughts were like, “Uh. What?” and “Uh. Thank you! Here, buy some of my artwork, instead! :D”
I was lucky that I had good teachers in high school. Teaching takes a lot of planning, dedication, and patience. Yeah, I couldn’t be a teacher. Or maybe I just don’t want to teach…? I don’t know – not even thinking about it!
Anyway.
Here’s an illustrarticle I’ve recently finished:
It’s for a story about a dog I heard barking in the distance as I tried for fall asleep one night. A lot of dogs bark in my neighborhood. Basically, I don’t live in the Rogers Park neighborhood. I live in Rogers BARK.
After I wrote the story, the illustration started with this little sketch:
Then, it turned into an outlined final sketch:
And then, a finished painting:
Ta-da! Those little hearts were originally sketched out as dog skulls & cross bones. But right before inking the illustration, I realized that’s not the direction I wanted it to go. You can read the illustrarticle here: “Why Dogs Bark At Night”
An illustrarticle is it’s not quite a comic, not quite a blog. It’s an illustration with an article. Can’t have one without the other. Thought I should clarify that. New IllustrArticles are posted whenever important stuff happens. And sometimes, Thursdays.
Thursdays, most people post old photos of themselves on the internet for fun, but I want to post my old art. This is my creative edition of the #ThrowBackThursday.
Warning: last drawing might be NSFW for dogs. Cover your dog’s eyes for the last segment.
Space ships, human seesaw, exaggerated princess dresses, cigarette-smoking crab, urinating dog… You know, the usual stuff that 5 year-old me drew in 1990 while still living in Ukraine.
I wanna see your old creations. If you have some, post them here in the comments, or your Twitter/Instagram and tag them with #TBTart.
Like I was telling my friend Katie Waters, a foley artist and sound engineer, sometimes it feels like I’m throwing paper airplanes into the abyss.
I’m so thankful for all the private commissions I’ve gotten the chance to create for such great people. And I’m thankful for my part-time job at the printing center because I’ve learned a lot there. Meanwhile, I’m still looking to create commercial and editorial work. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ So I keep throwing my portfolio, resume, and post cards out there.
I was being a downer one day and said that people buy art as a luxury. Katie corrected me by adding that art is an escape. And she’s right. I like to escape and enhance my life with art all the time, through music, movies, books, stuff on the internet. When you work in a creative field, you have the ability to create an escape and enhance the lives of people.
In my other post I mentioned that it’s been a rough few weeks. Not to mention the freezing, nearly sunless Chicago weather. During times like these, I try to plow through it all with what I can only describe as, ignorant optimism: I keep saying that the weather is beautiful!
Getting featured by Design Juices and Land Rover, among other things, was awesome. Of course, it’s a nice feeling to be noticed and appreciated for something you love to do. It’s like being rescued from an island.
So, I guess you just gotta keep making and throwing those paper airplanes. For years. Eventually, they’ll land in the hands of the right people.
(Or maybe I should have said, “message in a bottle” instead of “paper airplanes” because that would have made more sense about the island rescue thing… ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ )
Design Juices features a lot of awesome illustration and design, and I’m so excited that my illustration work was featured alongside such great artists! My feature shares a some background info about my artistic influences and my project IllustrArticles.
One of my goals this year has been to write more and share more stories about illustration, creativity, and life. So far, I’ve been failing at that a little bit by not posting often enough. It’s been a rough few weeks since my last post that made it hard to fully focus on work.
Smoke sketch, part of an illustration in-progress.
There have been demonstrations and protests happening in my birth city, Kiev. My family that are there are alright, I guess, but they have been affected and are in shock, as well as the entire country of Ukraine. If you aren’t aware or don’t keep up with the news, you can Google for news and images of Kiev and Euromaidan (Independence Square).
Amy Ng is celebrating 6 years at her blog Pikaland and is giving away Issue #1 of her Good To Know zine series. It shares how artists deal with their setbacks. I contributed to the issue when it was originally published in 2009. You can check out my contribution on page 31. Here’s what I thought in 2009 was my stumbling block to creativity:
“My biggest stumbling block to expressing myself artistically is that I’m often taken too literally. I struggle with this because I usually don’t want to have to explain my work. The thoughts I put into the piece are my own and private and explaining those thoughts is like telling my life story to a stranger, to whom I just began to exist. I think my work invokes the feeling of curiosity, and just like lyrics of a song, my art could be interpreted in different ways, according to the individual.”
My views have changed within these 5 past years. I no longer mind if I’m taken literally and I don’t mind explaining my artwork. So, maybe that means I’ve made it past this stumbling block. Or maybe I misdiagnosed the actual stumbling block in the first place. That, the actual block, was me spending too much time focusing on the negative instead of the positive, and being afraid of what others might think of my artwork.
Since 2009, I’ve learned that “explaining” your work is just sharing your stories of life’s joys and heartbreaks. I, myself, love learning about other lives and I’m inspired by people’s stories. By sharing your stories, you’re passing along a torch that could inspire someone who needs it.
I’ve also learned I can focus more on positivity while accepting that negativity exists. It’s hard but not impossible. And I’ve learned to deal with the fact that I what I can’t do is control what others think of my work, just like I can’t bend spoons with my mind. Although, that would be a badass trick!
You can check out the write up on IllustrArticles for details. Long story short, my face in the above photo was my initial reaction when I got the email on my phone while I was at work and then Land Rover sent me some awesome camera lenses for my phone as my prize. I’m in love with the fisheye lens, always wanted one! I’ll be posting photos with the lenses on my Instagram.
Also, I currently don’t own a car. After moving to Chicago 3 years ago, I sold the one I had because I was needed to take a break from doing art fairs and started to use public transportation to get around instead. And because of that, every time I’ve done an art fair since or took a trip somewhere, I had to rent a car. This has been more cost-efficient but I do miss having the ability of driving to places anytime.
“Loca-Motion”
I have a lot of art fairs coming up this summer, including Wells Street Art Festival and more that I’ll announce as they’re confirmed. This means I’m going to be renting a lot of cars! And of course, I’ll be sure to rent a Land Rover. It might be a bit uncertain not knowing what I’ll be driving next but I’m looking forward to trying out different cars because that will help me decide what kind of car I will need to eventually buy for my career needs and life in general.
Art teacher at Mossville Elementary, Brian Du Pont, invited me to lead on an art project for his art class. Because I worked on a bunch of superhero illustrations recently and Brian publishes his own superhero comic Pecos Bill, I came up with the idea to have his students create their own superhero symbols. The guidelines to create their artwork were:
1. Combine two elements in the symbol: One thing that scares you + One thing that you like or enjoy doing.
2. Illustrate your symbol using watercolor & ink.
The project was inspired by Batman, my favorite superhero. When Bruce Wayne became Batman, he chose a symbol. Bruce Wayne is disturbed by bats because he fell down a well full of bats as a child. He uses the bat as his symbol to conquer his fear in the processes. He projects this fear to become Batman and fight crime.
Brian had his students sketch out their symbols and draw the final art on watercolor paper. And the day I came to visit, I showed them a couple techniques they could use with watercolor and ink to paint their symbols.
It was so awesome seeing in person what the students came up with for their symbols. They worked with their own ideas and caught on to the painting techniques immediately! And I am not surprised, because they are, after all, real superheroes. This was their works in progress:
Brian even took the project a couple steps further by having his students write a statement and frame their art:
Since all these super heroes are revealing their fears, it’s only fair that I reveal my own. It’s kind of embarrassing and makes no sense to me: I get social anxiety sometimes. That literally translates to “being afraid of people,” even though I love people. But just like with Batman, it probably has to do with things I’ve had to deal with in my childhood.
I’ve created different versions of my Razorberries logo over the years, but the elements within it have always been the same. Razor and berries.
